August 25, 2009

Two Tips Tuesday

Tip #1 Unique Containers

I looooove containers. I want to put anything and everything in a container if I am able. I think I would have enormous baskets for my girls if it was...you know... humane. But it's not, so I don't but everything else is fair game.

I am also poor so I need to get creative with my containers and sometimes I find new uses for things. I also have this thing for presentation. It has to look pretty. I can spend an hour stuffing a gift bag with tissue paper because it has to look full enough and the colors all have to work. If I have a party, I will actually create a layout of the table. So I admit to a need for things to look pretty. It makes me enjoy the everyday stuff of life.

My tip today is to invite you to see some ways I use or re-purpose containers and maybe it can give you the desire to pretty up the mundane too. Or just have some more convenience. Here are some examples that may get you thinking about what you have around your house to use...

This is an old coffee cup with a broken handle. So I put it in my medicine closet in my bathroom for my cotton balls (the broke handle facing in). Without a handle, it is a perfect container to just reach in and grab a cotton ball. A lot nicer then the bag they come in.

This is soooooo not pretty. But I had to admit I appreciated my Dad's reuse of this IBC container to bring bottled water on a van trip to a museum. I am not a "green" kind of girl but I do endeavor to re-purpose stuff. But my favorite part of this was the convenience. It was just plain smart.

This is an old fashioned type lemonade or iced tea jug. I love it but never use it for this purpose. I like that it has a handle and lid so I often use it as a cookie jar. It keeps them fresh, I can pick it up, and it just looks pretty on my counter. Especially after baking some of those M&M cookies from the girl's birthday party and tying the jar tag to the cookie jar.

This is my one stop coffee station. I so need coffee in the AM. I am not a pretty picture in the mirror or in my speech unless I have a mug in my hand. Well, still not pretty in the mirror but at least I start talking sweetly. So I need things to be readily accessible and right where I need it. I came up with this basket to have all our coffee needs in one place. The mugs are above it on the wall, the coffee and coffee maker to the right. Speedy convenience in a cute basket. Ahhhhh.

This is part of my coffee station. I put my coffee in a square, glass container that used to house pasta but then the presentation of pasta lost its appeal for me ever since carbs have been deemed starchy poison. It looks so pretty in there and I am coveting this gorgeous coffee scoop from my friend's shop KookieKrums. My sugar is in a cute dispenser for my husband to dump his daily insulin shock amount into his coffee (I'm a splenda girl) and I put a dash of cinnamon in my coffee each day. I give my coffee a little shake of it from that handled jar. It is actually cinnamon sugar in there which I also use on buttered toast as a fun treat.

Tip #2 Photo Magnets

Do you ever get these magnets in the mail or on your phone book that are business cards for your fridge? Some are pretty nice to have like appointment cards, emergency numbers or library hours. But they can add up and just start cluttering your fridge with unnecessary information you do not need. So I decided to give them new life...

This one is one of those big jobs that came on the front of our phone book advertising some legal practice. So I painted it. What a great way to put your kids art work on the fridge by giving them a magnet like this as their canvas!

This one is from this past Valentine's Day when I sent all the grandparent's magnets of the girls with their cutie and festive outfits on. A fun idea is to add some scrapbooking flair to the magnet and smack a photo right on there! It ended up so cute! Or you can just mount a photo on one of the magnets. So instead of some stranger's mug, you got one of your family or friends. Fun, fun, fun!

3 comments:

Fabulous ideas!! I especially love the magnets. The ones with the girls' picture on it is just too cute. What a great grandparent gift! And you paint too?! What don't you do?? The coffee scoops are pictured on my blog now, by the way. Shameless plug, here. www.kookiekrums.typepad.com